Wild West Storytime

Howdy, partner!

Had quite the fandango down at the local library yesterday... Cowboys, outlaws, ladies, and BOOKS! That's right, books. Didn't you know that cowboys love to read? Anyway, I've been awaiting to do this theme for quite sometime, especially since just south of Lawrence, Kansas is Dodge City, one of the most iconic cowboy towns in history. Yee-haw!!

Wild West Storytime Line-up:

How I Spent My Summer Vacation by Mark Teague

With summer almost over, this was the perfect intro into our storytime lineup. One boy thought he was going to be sent to his Aunt Ferns for a relaxing vacation when a band of cowboys kidnapped him. After that, his summer vacation was anything but ordinary.

Don't Touch My Hat! by James Rumford

Sheriff John thought he could do anything with is 10-gallon hat, but he quickly learns that a hat is a hat. It's the person who's wearing it that saves the day.

She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain by Jonathan Emmett, illustrated by Deborah Allwright

This book was so fun to read aloud, especially since their is a hand-action guide that goes along with the traditional song. So, I encouraged the kids to chime in with the expressions and hand-motions. They were laughing throughout the story. A must-read for Wild West Stortyime.

The Day Dirk Yeller Came to Town by Mary Casanova, illustrated by Ard Hoyt

What do you give an outlaw who comes to town, itchin' and a scratin' for something to keep him still? A library (and sweet as pecan pie librarian) of course! The perfect remedy for the restless.

Sheriff Badge Craft:

For our wild wild west craft we made sheriff badges. Since our library's summer kick-off theme was "Mustaches & Lawngames", we own the accucut dye cut for various mustache shapes, so I cranked a few out for the kids to wear with their sheriff badges as well.

Materials needed: metallic gold and silver poster board (cheaper than metallic card stock), fake jewels, stickers, tape, sharpie, white school glue, scissors, and colored construction paper.

Pre-storytime, I traced out star badges from a left-over Oriental Trading Company craft.  Not so great at drawing free-hand (like myself)? Print out these sheriff badge templates here or here to use as a guide.

Cut the badges out. Smaller scissors seemed to work well.

At storytime, the kids decorated their badges by gluing jewels with white school glue and also applying star stickers.

Sharpie markers we left out to write "Sheriff", "Deputy", "Cowboy", "Best in the West", a name, etc.

And that's it. Short and sweet.

I left out masking tape in case the kids wanted to affix their badges to their shirts AND paper mustaches with a roll of double-stick tape for instant sheriff-appeal. Yippie-kay-yay!

Here, my lil' pardner, Sheriff L, models the Wild West Storytime craft in true cowgirl style.

Stick 'em up! Don't anybody move a muscle. This is a heist.  I want to watch 10 hours of Elmo while eating strawberry icecream. Or else.